H. Van Ness Jr., NASA official

Contributed to missile development

April 12, 2007|By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Harper Elliott Van Ness Jr., a retired Navy captain and aviator who contributed to missile development and space research, died of pneumonia March 20 at Carriage Hill of Bethesda nursing home in Maryland. He was 87.

Capt. Van Ness continued his career in the aerospace field after retiring from the Navy in 1969, working with the Project Viking mission to Mars at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and later organizing funding for programs at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The Junction City, Kan., native, who was known as Jack, spent two years at Hardin-Simmons University before graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1942, a year early because of World War II.

He served as an ensign aboard the destroyer USS Lansdale for almost two years, leaving a month before it was sunk during a German torpedo bomber attack April 20, 1944.

After becoming a naval aviator in 1945, he joined the VF-20 fighter squadron, the "Fighting Twenty," as an operations officer on the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea and flew such fighters as Hellcats and Bearcats.

On subsequent assignments in the 1950s, he was a project officer for air-to-air missiles, had responsibility for introducing advanced aircraft equipment for use in fleet air groups and was involved in the testing and development of the Sparrow and Regulus series of missiles and the Bullpup and Corvus missiles.

From 1959 to 1961 at the Office of Naval Operations in Washington, he played a key role in establishing the Naval Space Surveillance System and the project transit field office that provided weather data to the naval fleet. Later, at the Office of Manned Space Flight at NASA, he participated in projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

From 1964 to 1966, Capt. Van Ness was officer in charge of the Navy office for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory at Air Force Space Systems Division in El Segundo, Calif.

During his military service, Capt. Van Ness received a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Annapolis, Md., in 1947, a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York in 1950 and a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University in 1967.

After retiring from active duty, he became deputy project manager for Project Viking and contributed to the successful landing of the Viking space probes on Mars. At the completion of the project in 1978, he directed public affairs and educational programs at Langley Research Center. He also was a liaison to Congress and managed major meetings for senior U.S. and foreign officials visiting the center.

He retired from his position in 1985.

After returning to the Washington area, Capt. Van Ness was a consultant to the development office of the National Air and Space Museum. From 1990 to 1995, he was a part-time employee there. In 2004, the museum honored Capt. Van Ness by adding his name to the Wall of Honor at its Steven Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport.